My Birthday

I turned 21 yesterday (Feb. 9, for future reference - haha), so I thought I'd tell y'all a bit about my Chilean birthday celebration.

I have some pictures, and I'll post those after this.

First of all, I have to say that from the first day or two that I came here, we realized that Adriana and I have the same birthday, and so everything in Adriana's world has been about her birthday, and us celebrating together (or not celebrating together, if she's in a bad mood). And second of all, it is a little weird to be in a different country on a 21st birthday, since the biggest marker in the U.S. for this birthday is being able to drink, and you're legal at 18 here - but oh well.

Tuesday night, we went to a Shrove Tuesday (another name for Mardi Gras - I don't know the full explanation - look it up if you want to know) International Pancake Dinner at Santiago Community Church. They have pancakes of all sorts, since Chilean pancakes are different from the ones we eat - more like crepes - and everyone has different names for them, depending on where they come from. This was very nice and fun, and at the end, they sang happy birthday in English to me and in Spanish to Adriana. Those pics. will be posted first, because they had a guy from the church taking pictures and he posted them on the net to share with everyone. Mine from the actual birthday celebration will come later.

Yesterday, we slept late here, because the work team didn't come to the house. I got a nice birthday greeting in bed from everyone - Patan, (I take that back - I don't think the cat greeted me - oh well), Shana, Adriana, Alain, and Carlos (who doesn't live here, of course, but works at the workshop and is over here occasionally, especially while the mission group has been here, and came for the birthday breakfast). Then, we had more pancakes and scrambled eggs - yummy!

Throughout the day, I got tons of happy birthday im's, e-mails and e-cards, which I hope to respond to personally soon, but for now - thank you all so much - I feel so loved!

Went up to the workshop for a bit, had lunch with them, endured the heat for awhile, and came back to the house to rest and clean up before we went back in the evening. We had a nice little Ash Wednesday service that Shana led, and had a dinner of fried rice and chicken. Lots of very rich birthday cake - chocolate and raspberry for me, orange for Adriana. Then, time for presents. Adriana got lots of little gifts from the team, and she is quite the speech giver - she went on for a couple of minutes, and it was very sweet. I got a very nice candle set from the group that sits on a square orange plate - they're all red and orange tones. And a very nice card which everyone signed, and I think I have yet to read all of - on my to-do list for today. I also got a package from my mom and dad, of course, which was quite fun - a few small things (and a nice little gift to my checking account) - I was a little afraid to open up everything, because I knew it was a general package in addition to being a birthday package - I didn't know if I might be busting out some underwear or something in front of the whole group. Oh, and there was a card and gift from Mammaw and a card from my home church, which were also very nice. And still, the gifts kept coming - amongst Adriana, Alain, Shana, and me. I won't go into everything, because there are quite a few, but I got Adriana some new houseshoes (from Casa & Ideas - a very cool Chilean home decor place), and she gave me the longest hug ever and got quite emotional - so much emotion flowing with the big day, the group being here, and the new things being done at the house and workshop, like the flooring, painting, etc. But, anyway, the day and evening was very special, and I was glad to share it with everyone there - Adriana, Alain, Shana, the staff and Georgie during the day, and everyone from Virginia. Oh - and I got to talk to both my mom and dad as well - a couple quick phone calls in the evening.

After the celebration outside, there was of course music and dancing, in keeping with Chilean customs, or at least customs at the workshop. Alain and Adriana were absolutely precious - as soon as the music was going, they danced about 4 songs straight. You wouldn't believe how flexible Alain's hips are - he was cracking me up - quite the suave dancing partner. Adriana took a little break to say bye to Dora (who used to live at the group home), but they both continued to dance till the music was turned off - I danced a bit, as well as pretty much everyone else in the front room there. As it was late, and everyone all the way around was pretty tired, we gathered up gifts, etc. and Shana, A,&A headed back to the house, others headed to bed, and Terry, Debby, Connie, and I went out for a little after-party celebration at the plaza. We went down to La Tecla, which is really close to the workshop, but it wasn't exactly hopping, so we went on to a place called Blue Pub, where there was some live music (nothing really impressive, although there was a girl who was there with some friends that got up and sang, and she was really good). It's been so nice getting to know everyone in the group, and I really enjoyed getting to chat more with the three of them. They bought me a Pisco Sour (if I haven't mentioned before, this is the national drink of Chile, or something to that effect - I need to get some wine in me, because all I've had of the wine here so far has been in a pisco shot), and we got a little bit of appetizers, even though we were already stuffed from dinner and cake. Anyway - they gave me some advice, said what they would have done differently up to this point, asked me some about my plans (or lack thereof), and chatted about this and that. I think I'm going to have make a trip to Centreville, VA pretty soon after I get back and visit everyone, and I hope to get everyone's e-mails, because it's been great getting to know all of them - such a wonderful group of people - they've welcomed me into their cooky circle with open arms, and they're all just so interesting to get to know, and have been interested in getting to know me as well. And, as far as the trip to their area goes, I've not been to D.C. before, and it just sounds like such a cool, multi-cultural area.

So, it was a wonderful day all around - quite memorable - I don't think I could ever forget a birthday spent in Chile. It was also Paulina's roommate's birthday, so she couldn't make it to the festivities, so I hope to meet up with her soon. And, this Saturday is Adriana's surprise birthday party with her family, so that should be rather exciting.